Exit strategy -- life after football

The Eastern Upper Peninsula will be without three familiar faces on the sidelines when the football season opens this year.

St Ignace, Engadine and Newberry will all be under new management as Marty Spencer and Joe Austin have decided to retire from coaching, and Fred Bryant has taken a job as Cadillac Athletic Director.

While Bryant will still be working around the game, Spencer and Austin both have major adjustments to make as they try to find something to do other than patrolling the sidelines on Friday nights.

Spencer and Austin have over 70 years of coaching experience between them.

“I was ready,” said Spencer, who retired after 20 years as Saints’ head coach, and over 30 years of overall coaching and teaching. “I’ve been doing the same thing every summer for the past thirty years. Between weightlifting, throwing and painting, I was gone four days a week from seven in the morning to seven at night, Now, I’m painting more and still able to spend more time with my family, and I’m still getting home earlier than I was before.”

Austin also knew it was time, but he was literally pushed in that direction.

“I took a fall on the sideline last year,” said Austin, a 40-year prep football coaching veteran. “And I ended up having my knee and my hip replaced over the winter. I wasn’t sure that I’d physically be able to coach this year. I’ve healed up just fine, but I still felt like it was time to give someone else a chance.”

Don’t think that either guy will be sitting around trying to find things to fill the hours.

“I’m umping a lot right now,” Spencer said “I plan to spend some time traveling to different colleges to watch kids that played for me who are playing in college.”

Austin has at least one kid he’s planning to watch a lot as he just recently became a grandfather for the first time.

“We’re spending a lot of time with the little guy,” Austin said, “He is going to keep my wife and I pretty busy.”

Spencer and Austin are being followed by men who they coached in high school and also worked with for many years as assistants. Chris “Iffer” Marshall is now coach of the Saints, while Howard Hood returns as coach of the Eagles. Marshall and Hood are also both well on their way to becoming football coaching “lifers.”

Spencer and Austin have both faced the question as to whether they will help out the new coaches or not, and their responses were similar, but certainly not identical.

Spencer plans to attend games that he can, but he will not be on the sidelines and he will not be at any practices.

“I just feel like it’s unfair to the new coach,” Spencer said. “This is his program now and he needs to run it the way he wants to run it. And as for the games, I plan to go to the ones I can go to, but I won’t be in the stands. I’ll try and find a quiet place to watch from and just be out of the way, Maybe I’ll wear a big hat and be in disguise,” he joked.

Austin also believes in the new coach, and doesn’t want to step on any toes, but he has already been to one practice.

“I know that Howard (Hood) is going to do a great job,” Austin said. “But I couldn’t stay away completely so I just stopped in one day and made sure things were looking good and they were.”

As for what they will miss most, both coaches answered with no hesitation — “The competition.”

“Friday nights will definitely not feel the same,” Spencer said. “We had a lot of success and created a lot of memories. I’ll miss that part most of all.”

Said Austin: “My wife and I are traveling a little bit at the beginning of the season so I’ll miss the first couple games. But I guarantee I’ll know what the scores are as soon as the game’s over. Coaching is a part of me. I’m working on my golf game and my fishing to try and find something that I can still do competitively.”

Both men have left their programs in very capable hands, and even though they won’t be on the sidelines this year, their respective teams will still almost certainly show glimpses of the coaches who used to lead them.

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